Artworks from the Islamic world are recently gaining more attention and interest from collectors worldwide, and are also breaking and making new records. Sotheby’s Middle East & India chairman, Edward Gibbs, shared his experience of entering a grand, shuttered apartment in Greece, where he found a number of exquisite Ottoman textiles of a quality rarely seen outside of museums. The ever-increasing demand of Islamic art was evidenced by last year’s record-breaking sale of an Iznik dish at Sotheby’s. The extremely rare 15th-century ‘Debbane Charger’ was sold for $6.92 million. “We were massively surprised that it emerged like that. We didn’t even know at that stage if it was for sale or just an insurance valuation or authentication request,” stated Gibbs after the auction. Sotheby’s Head of Auction Sales, Middle East, Benedict Carter, also said, “What this price tells us about the market is that there is a voracious appetite for masterpieces — the best of the best. There are only three other dishes which are comparable and these are in museum collections, so they are not going to come to the market. So this was a unique opportunity for collectors.” Commenting on this growing demand and enthusiasm for Islamic Art, Gibbs says, “Countries from the Middle East saw their arts and crafts showcased in pavilions; that really lit a spark which coincided with the first Thomas Cook tours to the Middle East. People visited mosques and other monuments and became interested. Great collections were built at that time.” He further adds, “In the late-19th to the early-20th centuries, you have people like the great Armenian collector Calouste Gulbenkian who built the Gulbenkian Foundation now housed in Lisbon. You have Alfred Chester Beatty, an American mining magnate who left his library of manuscripts, now housed in Dublin Castle, to the Irish nation. You have Charles Lang Freer who funded the construction of the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. These and other such great collectors marked the beginning of collecting interest.” The growing interest in this category of art is noted predominantly in Europe and North America in the 20th century from collectors building private collections. Gibbs enunciates his views on collectors in the present times and states how in the contemporary time, collectors become more involved. He cites the collection of Sheikh Nasser and Sheikha Hussah in Kuwait and comments, “This used to be on public display until the Iraqi army torched the museum and looted it. It is now held by the family in safekeeping but is still shown through loans around the world.” https://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin
↧